ptions; hence, if we find in the latter anything belonging to
or found in the former it will indicate that they are borrowed and that
the Mexican are the older.

In addition to the close resemblance of these two plates, the following
facts bearing upon this question are worthy of notice. In the lower part
of Plate 52 of the Dresden Codex we see precisely the same figure as
that used by the Mexicans as the symbol of _Cipactli_.

The chief character of the hieroglyphic, 15 R. (Rau's scheme), of the
Palenque Tablet is a serpent's head (shown correctly only on the stone
in the Smithsonian Museum and in Dr. Rau's photograph), and nearly the
same as the symbol for the same Mexican day. The method of representing
a house in the Maya manuscripts is substantially the same as the Mexican
symbol for _Calli_ (House). The cross on the Palenque Tablet has so many
features in common with those in the blue and red loops of the Fejervary
Codex as to induce the belief that they were derived from the same type.
We see in that of the Tablet the reptile head as at the base of the
cross in the blue loop, the nodes, and probably the bird of that in the
red loop, and the two human figures.

What is perhaps still more significant, is the fact that in this plate
of the Fejervery[TN-19] Codex, and elsewhere in the same Codex, we see
evidences of a transition from pictorial symbols to conventional
characters; for example, the yellow heart-shaped symbol in the lower
left-hand corner of the Fejervary plate which is there used to denote
the day _Ocelotl_ (Tiger). On the other hand we find in the manuscript
Troano for example, on plate III, one of the symbols used in the
_Tonalamatl_ of the Vatican Codex B and in other Mexican codices to
signify water. On Plate XXV* of the same manuscript, under the four
symbols of the cardinal points, we see four figures, one a sitting
figure similar to the middle one with black head, on the left side of
the Cortesian plate; one a spotted dog sitting on what is apparently
part of the carapace of a tortoise; one a monkey, and the other a bird
with a hooked bill. Is it not possible that we have here an indication
of the four days--Dragon, Death, Monkey, Vulture, with which the Mexican
years began?

In all the Maya manuscripts we find the custom of using heads as
symbols, almost, if not quite, as often as in the Mexican codices. Not
only so, but in the former, even in the purely conventional characters,
we see evide